Foxconn worker falls to his death

Another Foxconn employee has fallen to his death at the company’s premises.

The 21 year old man died at one of the company’s manufacturing plants in Shenzhen, south China, after falling from the sixth floor of a factory dormitory.

The latest death will raise the interest of human rights activists, which have been campaigning against working conditions of Foxconn for years.

In May, the Cold-Tech grassroots labour action group held a protest to highlight the harsh treatment and poor conditions that workers at the plant still faced, despite many promises by the company that its staff were treated well.

The SACOM, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour, also filed a report which focused on how the company allegedly underpaid and mistreated its staff. It claimed workers were treated “like machines.”

In June last year, an employee also died from exhaustion following a reported 34-hour shift for the company.

However, chairman Terry Gou, who was once quoted as saying that “hungry people have especially clear minds” and “a harsh environment is a good thing”, is trying to make sure there’s no flies on him with this latest death.

He told the Taiwanese press that the death could not have been from pressure or long hours as the man in question was “still under a training program.”

He added that he had only worked overtime for two hours during the past 20 days.

The finger was pointed at the dreaded drink, claiming that prior to his death the worker had dined out with some of his work mates and they were “likely drunk after the gathering.”

In the past Foxconn has tried to stem the deaths in a range of ways, from asking employees to sign “no suicide” pacts as well as hiring monks and deploying nets.

Meanwhile, Foxconn has signed a contract with Chinese behemoth Huawei.

The pair signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) yesterday, which will see Foxconn raking in around $2 billion (NT$57.8 billion) through purchases by the end of 2013.